Freak Incident, reefer tank dropping fuel.

So just wanted to share how my week was going, yesterday we were traveling north on I-15 in Salt Lake City and a passenger car flagged down my driver so he pulled over in a wide median to check what was going on and noticed the reefer tank was dropping fuel. Evidently we ran up over something and it flew up and punctured the tank. We have side skirts on the trailer so we had to directly go over the object. By the time we figured out what we were going to do (thank god we were empty) a state trooper stopped and that's when the #### show started.

We estimated we dropped probably 20-30 gallons on diesel so the trooper called out the HazMat team to access if there was any risk, conclusion there wasn't, and no citation given as this was a freak incident, so all good right...nope. The city health department came and told us we were responsible for the environmental clean-up of what was dropped on the road and in the soil. So I had to hire a crew to come do the clean-up which they estimated will be $2,500 (I don't have the final bill yet) which is absolutely highway robbery for a 30 gallon clean-up. I bet there's more fuel dropped at the Flying J SLC in one day than that. I also find it funny, where we were at in the soil there's just trash and litter all around so no one gives 2 flips about that area.

Today we had a new reefer fuel tank put on, a mere $1,700 cost on a 3 month old trailer, and they told us we were the 3rd trailer this week that this had happened to. I never heard this happening before, let alone 3 times in one week. It seems like to me the UDOT needs to get their #### together and start clearing debris from the roadway.

So in total, this will cost me around $4,500 and we a lost day of revenue. We could claim this one insurance but after the deductible it wouldn't be worth it as it would just muddy up our loss run for when we renew. You bet your ### everyone will be carrying some kind of tank repair material going forward. I couldn't imagine what the bill would be if you started leaking out a 150 gallon fuel tank. Or best bet, if you do have a leak pull off where the po po can't see you.

 

The soil that it leaked into was contained to a 9x9 area. No run-off, leakage or wind caused it to go anywhere. Literally one person with a shovel could get it done in 15 minutes.

I don't know how we didn't damage anything else. My guess is that it was lying on the road and the tractor went over it and it kicked it up into the tank area.

And I don't consider myself lucky at all on this. It's BS like this, that's out of your control, that makes you want to say frick this. It was just wrong place, wrong time and wrong lane. Only thing I consider myself lucky on is that we were empty. If we were loaded we'd probably have a claim.

 

Oh no I totally understand...now. I've never been through something like this so I had no idea. And of course you play the what if game. Like what if the shipper on Friday left the bills on our dropped trailer then it wouldn't have taken the receiver 3.5 hours to unload us and that debris wouldn't have been on the roadway if we got done in 2 hours.

I usually don't get salty about things but this one has left a bad taste in my mouth. But maybe my gripe should be at the manufacturing quality of the reefer tank.

 

Yes insurance covers it, but it's still a $2,500 deductible than it mucks up my claim loss history, which will affect premiums going forward. So unless the clean-up cost is somehow higher than what I was quoted I'm just going to eat it.